atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Payphone ringer?

Hey all -

I switched over to Uverse VoIP a couple months ago; all is well. Better than that, actually.

One thing - my payphone doesn't ring anymore; and the VoIP conversion is the only thing that's changed recently.

Just wondering if the ringer in a payphone draws more current or something.

If so, I think I found something on sandman to fix it, but thought I'd ask the experts first.

Thx
Matt

Matt:

Your payphone uses a standard C4 type ringer, just like one from a 2500 set. I seriously doubt that your switch over has anything to do with it. You may be pushing the REN limit of their equipment and a "real" ringer would be affected more than an electronic one. Try to see if it will ring with only the payphone's tip and ring connected to the line and see what happens.

Matt -

Are you running Line Ringers or a Common Bell off the 1A2 system? Common Bell draws much less then Line Bells and will allow you to add more SLT sets (with bells) to the REN limit.

Sam

Ed - Will do.

Sam - for my SLT's, I have them connected before the 1A2. For the 1A2 sets, I use the ring generator.... Not sure if this answers your question, sorry. But the 1A2 sets do use a common bell, again, from the ring generator.

Matt -

OK. Well that won't help. If a high REN is the problem, you could disconnect the ringers from Tip & Ring, remove the capacitor and wire them on a spare pair to RG/RC.....but then you'd need a diode matrix.

There's a fun project for you...

Try Ed's test first.


Sam

Do you know what your actual ringing voltage is thru the VoIP, or the ring cycle? Could it be there simply isn't enough voltage present to ring the older "mechanical" ringers?

You could also try temporarily disconnect the payphone and connect a regular 500/2500 type phone with mechanical ringer. If you have the same result, it's not the payphone.

ffej010 - Nope, havn't tested that. Will do though, after Ed's test. I do know there is normally 50v across T&R.

MooreTel - OK, thanks!

Well,

I disconnected everything but the payphone, and got a very weak, wimpy ring out of it. When I was hooked to POTS, it was the loudest ringer in the house.

Connected the other SLT's back up, and the payphone stopped again, but the other SLT's (2, w/mechanical ringer) rang fine.

I measured voltage across T&R with the payphone hooked up, and it cycled between 50v and 1v. I should have measured it with nothing connected, need to redo that test.

I also plugged another SLT into the payphone jack, no ring from it either (with the other SLTs connected).

I'm not sure if this is the right terminology, but it seems like I'm exceeding my REN. What has me puzzled is that 1 payphone would do it. The fact that Ed said this shouldn't be a problem makes me even more doubtfull.

Thoughts?

TIA,
Matt

I don't think you are getting enough ring voltage. 50v really isn't enough for that type of ringer.